Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

New Faces, New Leadership, New Us!!

• Derek Ross and Emily Brewster-McCarthy • Season 2 • Episode 3

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In this podcast, Communications and Outreach Program Manager Derek Ross and Community Relations and Special Projects, Emily Brewster-McCarthy will be discussing their plans for 2026. During this discussion we will learn more about the new faces at CUPF. More importantly, why should you listen to our podcast.

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SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to Off the Cuff, a Community Use of Public Facilities podcast, the show where we explore, discuss, and introduce you, our listeners, to the wonderful world of community use. I'm Emily Brewster McCarthy.

SPEAKER_01:

And I am Derek Ross. Together, we are your host, and we are here to provide you with some of the most up-to-date news and information about Cuff. Emily, are you ready to get started? Absolutely, I'm ready to get started. Listo by Mambo? Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm ready to Mambo. Yes, yes, yes, we are back. I feel like I always start like starting off like that because you know what? What better way to say that we are back here for another podcast? Welcome to Off the Cuff Community Use of Public Facilities podcast. This is what? Season two? Oh, the episode three? Yeah, episode three. Episode three. We are already getting through, already getting through it. We we've titled this New Faces and New Leadership. What, New Us? New Us. And I think that this is this is actually going off of what we talked about last episode. Because when you said new, all of this new, I was like, oh, we definitely need to discuss this new, new a little bit more than usual. But Emily, we already heard your voice. But hi, Emily. Hi, how are you? What's good? What's good? How you doing? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I mean, I'm all right. I'm all right. I always say I'm all right, but you know, I'm feeling good. You know, life is okay, you know. But just to let you know, we're not trying to date or timestamp this at podcast, but it is Friday for us. It is. This Friday. We like Fridays. I don't know why we said that or I said that, but uh, Fridays is great for me. Great, you know, it's good times, good times. Um, how are you doing? We want to do some highs and lows?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we can do highs and lows.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do highs and lows. I think I started last time. You gonna start? You got something?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh yeah. We'll keep it a little light. Okay, okay. Right before recording, we were talking a little bit of uh gaming and video games. And so, you know, that's kind of my thing, too. Okay. Uh, you might not expect it when you meet me, but you know, that's what I like to do in my spare time. Okay, okay, okay. So, you know, I'm happy about that. I'm always happy to talk about video games.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, we can do that. We can do that.

SPEAKER_02:

But um, yeah, my low is honestly, like I said, do I ever really have a low? No, I don't think so. But I think you know what? My low is, and this is the opposite, because like you said, it's hooray is Friday, right? But my low is like, we after today, we gotta wait two more days to go back to work at Cove. And I love it here. So, like, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Good times. We are we are good times. See, see, that makes me feel bad because when you come in, you go yo, you I have no low, and then here I am. You know what? Low is low is low. I'm going through my lowness, and then here you are. I'm I don't have no lows. I'm like, all right well, I I guess I don't have that many lows or something like that, or coming in too sad. But were you good with your highs and lows?

SPEAKER_02:

Should I jump in or uh yeah, you could jump in.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. Well, my high, we're talking about video games. Well, in 1988, I used to represent Duck Hunt, okay? If you wanted to challenge me in an old school game of duck, well, we got to find the right TV too, just to let you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I don't know that they make connections. Uh, well, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's why I'm still the defending champion in 1988, because there's nobody that can still play, even though I'm in a room full of gamers and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure somebody will be like, hold on, Derek, I'll challenge you and I will dominate. So, but any lows, I don't know. You know, if I want to say a low and we don't want to make the community feel like, oh, that's a low, that I really don't have any super lows. I think a low is that, you know, we're supposed to actually kind of hang out. You know, we're supposed to get our kids in the same room. So there's a lot of things that we're going to try to do as a team, as a network, and stuff like that. But as we continue on in this podcast, you know, we try to bring in that whole did you know aspect of it. And from a did you know standpoint, of course we have to bring up the podcast. We as we close out this new this year going into the new year, we want the community to know that this podcast is up and running. We are, we are rocking. You're going to hear so much more from us from the podcast. This is going to be one of our main uses or one way that we kind of get our communication out there as well. Hey, Emily, I know we talked about the podcast, but what is it about the podcast? What is the community getting from us?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, not only are we giving them a lot of information, right? Good information, telling them to go visit our blogger, we're telling them to um well, we're telling them all about what spaces are available for uh use. Um but really, you know, I think it's about us. I think it's about showing collaboration and letting the community know that we're really um pro them and we really want to get them to use their spaces. And um just a little bit of a of a background here. I um I think it was mentioned before, maybe the last season, that I've been with the county for for a little while already, um almost 15 years. And I was with HHS for a majority of that before I moved to Cuff, and I ran a um rites of passage program for young women, and I actually used Cuff Spaces when I was working at HHS. So I, yeah, I would rent a room um through Cuff uh at MCPS locations, um, and we would run a group there. So we're really trying to encourage the community to um think of really creative ways to use these spaces. Um so whether you want to run a rites of passage program for the youth in your neighborhood, whether you want to host an HOA meeting, whether you just want to have a bingo night with people that are around or um actually, you know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, during one of our outreach activities um or events, uh somebody came up to us and said that they um they teach bike riding, right? And so that for that, you could rent a parking lot from us. I don't know that people knew that.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think so. I don't think so. It's always unique, especially, and I think one of the definitely, like you're saying, the pros and cons. The one big pro, I don't even know if this is a con, but the pro is that we definitely learn when we're doing outreach about who is looking for what. What is it that they're trying to align with? What is it that they didn't know about Cuff, and what is it that they can learn from us, which is why the podcast is important. Like we we're typing up so much, we're putting you know blogs out, we're updating the website, we're making you we're making sure that the community is reading and learning about Cuff, but we're also taking this time to give you some of that good old audio, give you some of this voice, some opportunities for you to understand that there's so many different unique things that you could be doing with the community use of public facilities, off the cuff podcast. I just wanted to throw that in there. But you brought up school usage, yeah. And we were talking about games, video games, and facilities and stuff like that. We're talking about so many different avenues and so many different options. We do want to also remind people every time that the Silver Spring Civic Building is one of the primary locations, I think our only destination or location for private celebrations.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you think about that, that means that if you are in that Silver Spring area, if you are in Silver Spring and you wanted that location to be your primary location, prime, prime real estate, prime spot. Well, the Civic Building can answer a lot of things. It can do a lot of great things for you, similar with other facilities as well. So when we're talking about did you know when we're talking about our podcast, we're talking about letting you know that this podcast is for real. It is.

SPEAKER_02:

Can I say that?

SPEAKER_01:

Can I say we're for real?

SPEAKER_02:

100.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Oh, I like that. 100. We are for real. We're here, off the cuff community use of public facilities podcast. We're we're going to keep throwing that in there because we want to make sure that we're keeping people updated, we're keeping people fresh, keeping people in the know about who we are. Now, you've already discussed it, and you mentioned community activities and being done at other facilities. And I did like that one when it was brought up. I forgot the department or the person specifically, but when they mentioned bike riding and looking at facilities and spaces, it does make you feel like that. But what other spots that you can you think of? We talked about it before. Is there something new that you never mentioned that's a good place to do an event with community use of public facilities?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I feel like one of the spaces that is like a hidden gem of ours is Clarksburg Cottage. Oh, okay. Okay. It's beautiful. I don't know if you've ever, well, obviously you have and we have, I have. But I don't know if the community, you know, has spent the time to admire how beautiful that building is. It's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01:

It is gorgeous. It is gorgeous. There are some key buildings, some facilities that we're bringing up, not just because of the usage opportunity of it, but just because some of it may just work well with your schedule. It may work well with what you're trying to do, which is why we always encourage people to come check out our website. Come check out Cuff, Community Use of Public Facilities. You can Google it, you can type it in, you can figure out from a standpoint. And quite honestly, Emily, if I'm bringing it up, we're going into the new year. This is a great opportunity for you to think about, you know, what you're going to do for the new year, public events, public activities, something that can be aligned with community use of public facilities. I'm just throwing that in there because we're talking about the podcast, anything else like that. But as we are remembering and going through stuff, I know as I'm bringing up the podcast, I wanted to bring up my life growing up in recreation, growing up using facilities, being in Boy Scouts, doing all of these activities, and now witnessing from this angle so many different activities and facilities being utilized by so many groups and organizations, nonprofits. I feel like Cuff is at a good point. You know, a lot I feel like more people learning about us, but you know, we're we're gonna figure this out. We're gonna figure this out. Is there any other facilities, Emily? You got anything else you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I'm trying to think of activities that um I like I said, I grew up doing, and like you said, you grew up doing, uh, but also that I do as an adult, right? Sometimes we just want to have a pickup game with some of our friends. Let's do it. Yeah, let's go right now. Let's go. Okay, I mean, listen, you want to get dunked on?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, don't do that.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm a whole 5'2, okay? But I will dunk on somebody.

SPEAKER_01:

If you dunked on me, I would be so upset.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, not to say you couldn't do it. Just wait.

SPEAKER_01:

I would be so upset, I will quit. I would be so upset. I'm like, 5'2, Emily done dunked on me. I gotta go home and I'm done. I'm done for the day. But yes, like gymnasiums, that that is always a key part of the conversation. When we're talking about, and we're just throwing it in there just in case you wanted to know as we get through this. Auditoriums, too, as well. Um, church groups use auditoriums, uh, auditoriums for plays, dances, and stuff like that. I am so surprised about so many different usages our buildings and facilities get. A lot of them.

SPEAKER_02:

You know what? And I think there's one other one, Marion Friar uh Plaza. Oh, yes. Right, right outside of our uh Wheaton headquarters.

SPEAKER_01:

Wheat Wheaton.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, if you're a musician and you want to have an outdoor show, that is your that's your spot. It's a good spot. That's a good spot. And it's it's metro accessible. It's literally right outside the metro. Right there. Easy to get to. And if you need any help, we our staff is right there in the building right next to it.

SPEAKER_01:

We're right there. Right there. That is always a good place. You know what? We we always talk about, and I'm not to say we do ignore it, but we talk about indoor and outdoor, but we do, we I sometimes forget about outdoor a lot, you know? Yeah. Because Veterans Plaza, we have Marion Fryer Plaza, we have different very various veterans' parks. Like we have so many different outdoor locations that are available to the community. So if we don't say that enough, we we sorry. We we don't bring it up enough. We should bring it up more, but I promise you we will in 2026 and stuff like that. But as we go through this, Emily, we can't forget about the whole conversation. Did you want to mention anybody's names? We we mentioned new faces. Let's get to it. Let's be strong. Let's end this strong. We have a lot of new faces with Cuff.

SPEAKER_02:

We do.

SPEAKER_01:

We do. So did you want to introduce anybody or just give people names? Absolutely. Let's do it. Let's do that.

SPEAKER_02:

I would love that. Okay, so let's not that we're we're we're not going in any order. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but we have four new staff.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh upper management that have joined us, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

We got a new director, we got a new operations manager at Silver Spring Civic Building, we have a new operations manager for core services uh at Cuff, uh out of the Wheaton Headquarters building. And then we also have a division manager um for community relations and special projects. Wow, wow. So I'm gonna go ahead and go down that list. Um, so actually, I'm gonna go kind of backwards. So our new um division manager for community relations and special projects is Eric Frosch, who you would know uh formally as the operations manager of Silver Spring Civic Buildings.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yep, yep, Eric.

SPEAKER_02:

So he has joined our team over at Wheaton, but he did not leave Silver Spring empty-handed. We actually put a wonderful, wonderful person uh there to um kind of take on, you know, the role uh that Eric had. And even though Eric cannot be replaced, he had so many wonderful connections. Wonderful. Um, but he's working really closely with our new uh operations manager at Silver Spring, who is Miguel Losada.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh we are so, so happy to have him on board, um, as well as Eric, but Eric's been around uh Cuff for a little bit. So we welcome him to the Wheaton staff, Eric, and then we welcome uh Miguel to the Silver Spring uh staff along with the uh Cuff family uh in total. And then we have Eduardo Fuentes, who is our operations manager um for core services in the Wheaton headquarters building. Um he's also awesome. You guys will all get to um meet them. Hopefully, you hear from them. Yes, and they'll get to know a little bit more about their uh they they can share more about their background. Um and then last but not least, we got a new director.

SPEAKER_01:

New director.

SPEAKER_02:

I listen, I know we talked briefly last time and a couple other episodes ago where we were so sad to see Ramona go. So um, you know, she retired and we're happy that she's, you know, she got to retire and she's enjoying and you know, hopefully traveling the world and having fun. And though we do have her for a little bit longer, right?

SPEAKER_03:

We do.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but we have somebody, when I tell you, I could not be happier. Um we have a new director. Her name is Janelle Burwell.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, Janelle.

SPEAKER_02:

And already the impression that she is giving, uh, we're we're heading in such an awesome direction. Um, I couldn't say anything. Derek, do you have anything to say? I'm like out of words to say. It's gonna be an awesome change. Like, I don't know how how else to describe this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. It it's we're not just saying one, two people, we're saying four. Four. We're saying a lot, it's so much change happening. And I know from a comms of communications, community relations background, this is more or less a good change for us because now we can all kind of reset a little bit. And reset meaning that, you know, Ron and Ramona, our previous operations manager and our previous director, I always call by first name because they're such great people, good, cool people to know. Um, they left us in a good spot. Yeah, they did. And so now that there's new leadership in this gives us an opportunity to kind of regroup, like you said, like I think you said last time, like revamp. Like we get a chance to get some more input, get different opportunities. We're also working with other people in the department now, too, to just just I wouldn't say share, but just be able to enjoy this whole community avenue. Like we well, community is in our name. So why not make it community-oriented? So we get a chance to do all that. But I'm I'm excited. I'm excited. We've had a couple meetings already. We're gonna keep having meetings, and I think that there's more transparency as it continues to become grow like that. We're here too as well. And I want to make sure that we share and keep that opportunity open. That there is an open, of course, there's an open seat for our director. Of course, of course. Always. Always. We want to throw that out there as well, too. And we have operations managers. We want to make sure everybody gets a chance, and we want to make sure people understand that this podcast, from a cuff standpoint, you won't just hear our voice, you'll be hearing a lot of people's voices. That's what I'm saying. New faces.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think the other thing that's kind of unique and special about our our podcast and what we do over at Cuff is we really try to let the community know a little bit more about us as employees, as staff, as also fellow community members. Uh, we're not really gatekeeping uh what we do, um, what we're like. We really want the community to know that we are just like them because we are them. And everything that we do is taking them into consideration, taking us into consideration. Uh, we really want to plan and build what's best for the community in Montgomery County. Um so looking forward to uh all of this new, like we were saying, new year, new us, new faces, refresh, revamp. Not that anything was bad or, you know, wasn't wonderful before, but we have such a cool opportunity now to kind of emerge anew uh in the new year. And like I said, four new people, you know, coming in, uh, upper management, and every single one of them, again, not that this is listen, I know I'm I I'm not being paid to say this next part, okay? Okay, okay. But the four of them have such wonderful spirits and energy, and uh they're bringing so much um livelihood and um just overall purpose to what Cuff does. And we are such a collaborative team. Um, so it's not just Derek and I and whoever else is sitting around us um doing the podcast. We really um dip into each one of our staff members and all of our collaborations, all of our network all around Montgomery County. Um, this is about uplifting everybody else in the community and um not just our voices and what Cuff does, but really just wrapping it up and and putting it all in a package in a gift almost. Yes, yes. Um to say, hey, one-stop shop. You hear about Cuff. These are opportunities and these are spaces that you can take to like do cool things like basketball games, you know, um gaming tournaments or whatever you want to do. Um, but also know that uh if you want any other or if you need any other resources, that we got them.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Yep, yep, yep. And I I'll I'll definitely end it like that. It's just say that I know there's always a good moment where we have a chance to explain large facility usage. And that means that large groups, like they're there meaning, like if you're trying to do an event, say a track, track event, you know, a gymnastic event where there's gonna be a good large amount of people. And we've seen it. I know I've gone to some schools on a weekend and just be like, wow, yeah, there are a lot of people here using communities but facilities. So it's always a unique energy to be able to see how this is working, especially when it comes to large groups of like over a thousand people to just a group of maybe five to ten people who are just looking for a classroom or something like that or a meeting space or something. So what I'm saying is that Cuff got you covered.

unknown:

We we got you covered.

SPEAKER_02:

And check us out online, um, not only to get information, but Derek worked on some really cool, along with you know, our friends over at Tebs, have worked on some really cool 360 um tours of our spaces. So if you want to check out our space, go on our website and check out our blogger. They have all of the stuff. We have, you know, like I said, one stop shop, sure. But like you can also get on our website and if you don't have time to go to the actual field, to the actual school, to the actual auditorium, that's that space, go on our website and take the 360 tour.

SPEAKER_01:

360 tour. We're trying to get more pictures up. We're trying to do a lot. We're trying, I guess we say new faces, new, new, new. We're talking about just new look. We want people to see what these facilities are, what they can do for you, and stuff like that. And especially all of these professional people that are coming around asking for measurements of rooms and sizes and stuff like that. You know, capacity. We understand, we get it, but there is also an element about it that we're trying to add to, especially when you use Active Montgomery, activemontgomery.org to reserve spaces. There is a lot more information that we're trying to add to these tabs, these buttons to kind of give you a little bit more spotlight, put it like that, into some of these facilities and stuff like that. Well, Emily, I think, you know, I think we I think we did good. I think we did good this episode. I think we're doing all right, doing all right. But Joe. Jokingly, as we close this out, how you feeling? Any high fives? Should we shout out anybody or something like that?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm gonna make a quick joke about last time we did a high five and my hands were kind of sweaty. Oh my goodness. So when we high fived, I feel like I splashed everybody around us. And you know, so why don't we fist bump this one? Let's fist bump. Okay. Let's fist bump.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, boom. There we go. There we go. See, that makes it even worse. So that was you jokingly said at 5-2 dunking on me. So if you dunked on me with sweaty hands, that means that you just palmed the ball. Amen. I don't, that means that that's amazing. That's amazing. So I want to throw that out there. But yes, yes, yes. We just fist bump. We want to give a shout-out, of course, to so many different organizations, departments that continuously use Cuff. And if you know organizations, departments that probably, hey, have you talked to community use of public facilities? That's us. Talk to us. Yeah, we're cool over here. We cool. We cool. We do cool things and stuff. I don't know what the cool things are, but we do cool stuff. So whatever it is that you're looking for, hopefully community use of public facilities is there to help you. But once again, new faces, new us. We're also getting ready as we continue on to count down to the new year. So we're gonna still do more and more and more talking about the new year and getting ready. But it is 2026 is coming, Lemony. It's coming. Let's get ready. So it's just ready. But besides that, subscribe to our podcast. Subscribe to us. We're gonna keep throwing that out there. But closing, do you got anything else, Emily? We good? We good? I'm good. We good? I'm pumped. You heard it from Emily first, everybody. We're good to go. So once again, thank you very much and see you later.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll see y'all next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

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